


i've been sleeping so long in a twenty-year dark night (and now i see daylight)

by MotherKarizma



Series: here comes the sun [12]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Final Installment, Fluff, Gen, Parent Tony Stark, Precious Peter Parker, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Tony Stark Has A Heart, completed series, reading the previous works is necessary for context, tears bruh, you guys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:00:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22903588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MotherKarizma/pseuds/MotherKarizma
Summary: Having Ned and MJ back was like realizing, after months of trying desperately to assemble the puzzle of his life, that he’d been missing a vital piece all along.It wasn’t that Peter hadn’t been trying hard enough, or that he couldn’t see the picture clearly in his mind. He wasn’t lacking the intelligence, lacking the drive, lacking the desire. He wasn’t inadequate; he hadn’t failed. The journey wasn’t futile. He’d just lost something important along the way.Sure, the edges were a bit rough. The final image wasn’t quite as bright as it might have been had all the pieces not been lost or rained upon or trampled over in the first place; there was some damage that would be eased with time, and some that wouldn’t – but it was, finally, complete.For the first time in nearly four years, Peter felt whole.And then came the question:Once the puzzle is whole, where does it go?-----Peter has been a great many things over the past six months. He has been an addict, a patient, a survivor. He has been shattered, picked up off the concrete, and repaired. He has been elated; he has been heartbroken; he has been sorry.Now, he has to figure out what comes after sorry.
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: here comes the sun [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1633516
Comments: 110
Kudos: 1299
Collections: The Best Irondad/Spiderson Fics, ellie marvel fics - read





	i've been sleeping so long in a twenty-year dark night (and now i see daylight)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [seekrest](https://archiveofourown.org/users/seekrest/gifts), [blondsak](https://archiveofourown.org/users/blondsak/gifts).



> NOTE TO NEW READERS: this is the final installment in a 12-part series! i highly recommend reading the series as a whole, since this work makes little to no sense as a stand-alone.
> 
> ashfsdfd i know i KNOW i said this was going to be a lengthy one but, as it turns out, the ending doesn't always have to be big to be impactful. this one practically wrote itself. i was kinda iffy on the quality of the 11th installment but THIS - i honestly think this piece might be my favorite out of the entire series. like i didn't even craft these words, they just kind of found me, you know?
> 
> thank you all so so SO much for all your encouragement and support over the past couple of weeks! i wrote this entire 38k word, 12-part series in 12 DAYS, and it's all due to your kind words spurring me along. i've never looked forward so much to writing something. 
> 
> i decided to dedicate this last installment to the lovely seekrest and blondsak - hope you two are okay with that! you've been so unbelievably kind and supportive of me and this series. i've been a lurker in this fandom for literally years, and i was really hesitant about stepping out and actually contributing content to the MCU/Spidey/Iron Dad fandom, but you two have gone out of your way to make me feel so welcomed and at home here. thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
> 
> enjoy!
> 
> [taylor swift - daylight](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9raS7-NisU)  
> \\\i don't wanna look at anything else now that i saw you  
> i don't wanna think of anything else now that i thought of you  
> i've been sleeping so long in a twenty-year dark night  
> and now i see daylight  
> i only see daylight//

Having Ned and MJ back was like realizing, after months of trying desperately to assemble the puzzle of his life, that he'd been missing a vital piece all along.

It wasn’t that Peter hadn’t been trying hard enough, or that he couldn’t see the picture clearly in his mind. He wasn’t lacking the intelligence, lacking the drive, lacking the desire. He wasn’t inadequate; he hadn’t failed. The journey wasn’t futile. He’d just lost something important along the way.

On the night of his nineteenth birthday, the final piece was slotted into place with simplicity. With ease. Almost as if God or the universe itself was saying, _see, didn’t I tell you it would all work out, didn’t I insist over and over and over again that you weren’t broken beyond repair? Why were you ever worried?_

Sure, the edges were a bit rough. The final image wasn’t quite as bright as it might have been had all the pieces not been lost or rained upon or trampled over in the first place; there was some damage that would be eased with time, and some that wouldn’t – but it was, finally, complete.

For the first time in nearly four years, Peter felt whole.

And then came the question:

Once the puzzle is whole, where does it go?

* * *

“ _Dude,_ ” Ned said over FaceTime one night, and Peter, lounging in his bed, couldn’t help but smile at the mere sound of his friend’s voice. “I haven’t even told you where I’m going in the fall, have I?”

Peter’s smile slipped just a little. “You’re going somewhere?”

“MIT, dude! MI-freaking- _T_! My parents wanted me to take a gap year first, but I just spent the entire time waiting and waiting and _waiting_ …”

Ned went off on a long tangent about how insatiably boring his forced gap year had been, and Peter nodded, only half-listening.

He knew, really, that he wasn’t losing this piece again – that it would remain exactly where it was, perfectly fitted to the rest of the puzzle. There was no doubt in his mind that he and Ned would remain friends regardless of whether or not they spent the next four years physically separated from one another.

But for one piece to go somewhere, and for the image to remain whole, what option was there but for the rest of the puzzle to go along with it?

* * *

Peter kept his mouth shut to Tony.

He skimmed through MIT’s official website more times in a day than was probably healthy, watched every campus walk-through tour YouTube had to offer, surfed forums and blog posts and lists of pros and cons. When Tony walked by, the lid of Peter’s laptop was promptly shut, the videos clicked away from, the tabs closed.

 _Just ask him,_ an annoyingly persistent little voice in the back of his head kept saying – and it didn’t help that Ned kept saying it, too. _You got your GED; you’re two months clean; you’re ready._ _He won’t mind. He won’t take it personally. Just ask him._

“What are you reading?” Tony asked one day in the lab. Peter immediately darkened his phone’s screen and returned his attention to the tech in front of him.

“Twitter,” he lied.

_Just ask, just ask, just ask._

* * *

One morning, on a whim, Peter did.

“So, uh,” he started, spoon swirling in his almost-empty bowl of cereal. “So, Ned’s going to MIT in the fall.”

Tony paused, stylus hovered over his tablet, and looked up at him. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. His parents made him take a gap year first.” Peter shifted, giving the man a wary glance but not quite meeting his eyes. “He’s really excited.”

“Are you?”

“I mean – yeah. Yeah, I’m happy for him.”

Tony laid the tablet down on the table now and leaned forward, offering up his full attention. “You don’t sound all that happy.”

“I am! I am – Ned’s really smart, and MIT’s, like, a dream come true for him. It’s just…I’m not gonna see him as much anymore, you know?”

“PJs – hey. Look at me.” Hesitantly, Peter did. “Don’t get all caught up in your head about this, alright? He’s not just gonna drop you the second he leaves the state. Kid damn near passed out when I showed up at his house and asked if he was up to a little birthday shindig.”

“I know he’s not. That’s…not what I’m worried about.”

Tony quirked a brow at him. “Then why do you look like you’re about to have a mental breakdown?”

Peter took a deep breath, working up the courage. _Just ask him._

“I kind of want to go with him. To MIT. Like…as a student.”

For a moment, Tony stared at him in silence, expression unreadable. Dread pooled in Peter’s gut. Maybe Ned and his conscience had both been wrong. Maybe Tony _would_ mind, _would_ take it personally, _would_ outright refuse him permission to leave New York. Maybe he shouldn’t have asked, should have just bitten the bullet and given up while he was ahead. The idea of MIT actually accepting him, a high school dropout, was an outrageous one to begin with.

Then, Tony said with the slightest of smiles, “That can be arranged.”

“It–“ Peter blinked. “It can?”

“I don’t see why not.”

Peter saw about a million and a half reasons why not. “I _way_ missed the application deadline. School starts in a month. I dropped out of high school and my grades were terrible. I just got my GED a week ago. How would I get them to even look at me?”

“You seriously underestimate me. Honestly, I’m a little offended.” Tony scoffed and leaned back in his chair. “Kid, do you have any idea how much cool shit I’ve paid for that school to have? If I call them up and tell them to take you, there’s no way in _hell_ they would turn me down. I could have you in the best dorm building without any roommates in about – oh, I don’t know, five minutes?”

“And you’d be okay with me leaving?” This was the crux of it, the primary basis for Peter’s hesitance to ask. The man sitting across the table from him was the epitome of a helicopter parent.

Tony regarded him carefully for a few seconds, then sighed. “Honestly? I’d miss you like hell. Might blubber like a baby when we drop you off. But if this is what you really want, I’m not gonna hold you back.”

Peter grinned. “Are you serious? You’re _actually_ serious?”

“Nah, I’m just dangling the false hope of a quality education in your face for fun.” Tony rolled his eyes. “Yeah, kid, I’m serious. I can go make the call right now.”

Unable to contain the excitement buzzing all the way from his core to his fingertips, Peter promptly rose from his chair and threw himself at Tony in a hug. Tony, once he caught back the breath that had been knocked out of him, hugged him back.

Suddenly, the image, already whole, looked a little bit clearer; the colors ever so slightly more vibrant.

 _This,_ Peter knew, was recovery.

* * *

On the morning of his final day in the Tower, Tony knocked on his open door. “Need any help?”

Peter stood in front of several suitcases all open and scattered across the floor. An abundance of clothing – some neatly folded and stacked, others discarded in ever-growing piles – obscured his bed.

“Yes,” Peter said dryly. “You can help me understand why you’ve bought me enough clothes over the past six months for approximately twenty-three people.”

Tony shrugged. “It accumulates.”

“Somebody could pay off literally all of their student loans with this.” Peter didn’t know that for certain, since he very pointedly avoided looking at the price tags when he cut them off, but it seemed likely. “Are you okay with me leaving some stuff here?”

“Of course. It’s still your room. I’m not gonna move in a new Spider-Kid the second you leave.”

“Spider-Man,” Peter corrected instinctively. He crouched on the floor in front of one of the suitcases and sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I know you won’t.”

“This is still your home, PJs. Always will be.”

Peter looked up at him with a bright smile. “Always.”

Suddenly, Tony, arms crossed almost defensively over his chest, looked up at the ceiling and blinked a few times.

Peter tilted his head questioningly, following his gaze. The ceiling was distinctly free of web hammocks or questionable stains. “What are you looking at?”

“Not looking at anything.” Tony’s voice sounded rougher, a little more clogged, than it had only moments before. “Nothing at all.”

The man twitched his nose again, sniffed, blinked a few more times, and–

Oh.

_Oh._

“Mister Stark,” Peter said softly and rose to his feet, his smile some bittersweet cross between amusement and sympathy. “You were supposed to save the crying for drop-off.”

“Who’s crying? I’m not crying. _You’re_ crying.”

Peter wasn’t fooled. He crossed the room and fell against Tony’s chest, hands gripping the back of his suit jacket. Tony wrapped his own arms around Peter, tight and consecrated – almost as if he was afraid of letting go.

“I’m gonna come back,” Peter said. “You know there’s a long weekend for Labor Day, right? I’m literally gonna see you again in, like, three weeks.”

“Yeah, you will.” Tony cleared his throat and straightened his back, trying to pretend his tiny break of emotion had never occurred. “Because if you don’t, I’ll fly up there and drag your ass back.”

Peter laughed. He found himself sniffling now, felt that telltale burning behind his eyes. “Love you, too.”

Tony entertained the softness of the moment for a few more seconds, then pulled back, gripping Peter’s shoulders.

“Anything in ye ol’ New York you wanna do one last time before we hit the road?” He asked. “Since, you know, it’s gonna be three whole weeks.”

Peter smirked, something like excitement lighting his eyes. “Actually, there is one thing…”

* * *

With the wind whistling in his ears, his feet twelve stories off the ground, and the lifeblood of his city pulsing in the streets below, Peter Parker was happy.

He stopped a grand-theft auto in progress. He sighed as he handed Delmar’s ridiculously traffic-attracted cat back to him for the five thousandth time, and Delmar gave him a free sandwich as thanks. He found a young teenager loitering outside a sketchy-looking abandoned storefront, repeatedly checking the time on her phone and looking for all the world like she was more lost than she’d ever been, and offered her some heartfelt advice: _go home._ _It’s not worth it._

There weren’t many things that could make him feel like his old self again, like he was still that happy-go-lucky fifteen year old with the entire universe splayed open and waiting for him to discover it, but _this_ – helping, rescuing, looking out for the little guy–

This did.

**Author's Note:**

> [the beatles - here comes the sun](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUNqsfFUwhY)  
> \\\little darling  
> it's been a long cold lonely winter  
> little darling  
> it feels like years since it's been here  
> here comes the sun  
> here comes the sun, and i say  
> it's alright//


End file.
